Articles by Joseph Walker

Six former executives and managers at Insys Therapeutics were arrested and charged with conspiring to defraud health insurers and bribe doctors in exchange for prescribing the company’s fentanyl painkiller, Subsys.

Just a handful of doctors, many with close ties to Insys Therapeutics, co-founded by John N. Kapoor, are responsible for outsize levels of prescribing of Subsys, a form of the powerful opioid fentanyl, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis. Federal and state prosecutors and regulators in more than 15 jurisdictions are investigating the company’s business practices.

Shares of Edwards Lifesciences fell sharply in after-hours trading Tuesday after the medical-device maker reported lower-than-expected sales of its minimally-invasive heart valves in the third quarter.

Mylan agreed to pay $465 million to settle allegations it overcharged the government for its EpiPen products, the latest move by the embattled pharmaceuticals firm to quell the furor over its pricing practices.

Firms’ ability to raise drug prices is firmly intact despite pushback from health insurers and scrutiny by U.S. lawmakers. More than two-thirds of the 20 largest pharmaceutical companies said price increases boosted sales of their biggest products in the first quarter.

Biogen Inc. said one of its most closely watched experimental drugs failed to improve the health of multiple sclerosis patients in a mid-stage study, delivering a setback to the company’s new product pipeline.